


The Old Gods & Monsters of the North

by Spiderheart



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Gen, Gods, Legends, myths, world-building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-07-08 00:47:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19860784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spiderheart/pseuds/Spiderheart
Summary: There are a lot of tiny easter eggs and if you catch them all... well, good for you! I hope it gave you a giggle. For those who didn't, here they are, in order of appearance:John Barleycorn is a real mythological entity in England, known through folk songs by Fairport Convention, and also Alexander J. Adams, one of my fav transmen in the media.Tess, Jo, and Murya (mariah) are from the song 'They Call The Wind Mariah' from the musical Paint Your Wagon.Wolf is based on my wonderful beautiful girlfriend. Tame Wolf/Hound is based on both Rowsby Woof (from Watership Down), and also stories I grew up on about Trickster Gods such as Coyote, Anansi, Loki, and Hermes. Every pantheon needs a Trickster God.Bear, or rather, her name being a euphemism and the attitude toward her, are historical fact in our own world.The King of the Cats is also an English folk character.The Goblin King is based on, of course, Jareth of Labyrinth--but also the Goblin King from Tolkien's The Hobbit.The Autumnfolk are in stories of the fae from the British Isles.Snarks were actually invented not by GRRM but Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodgson.Shellycoats are a fae I heard stories about when I was living in North Carolina.Hollowheart Kos is based on the Russian folk villain Koschei.Strahd is from Ravenloft, a Dungeons and Dragons horror setting.Ylym (Elim) is a send-up to Elim Garak from Deep Space 9.Comments? Questions? Bonus Features? Come over tomy discord!





	The Old Gods & Monsters of the North

# Gods

 **John Barleycorn** – Old God of the harvest, and especially harvest of beer crops. Beer being much more drunk in the North, than wine. It’s easier to grow and make than apples, too. But John Barleycorn is god of them all, and more besides. He’s a fat old god, much of laughter and of plenty, and no one can be harmed in his presence—swords blunt and blows become weak as a kitten’s. John Barleycorn is for this reason known as the Hospitable Lord, and is where the tradition of never harming guests comes from.

 **Tess Trueheart** – The goddess of the weeping rain. She cries for the beauty of her sister’s painting the world with colour, and the tragedy is that her tears wash the colour all away—but her happiness is that when she stops, her sister paints the world brighter and more colourful for it. Associated with deer, rabbits, and water-going creatures. She is the reason men of the North do not think shedding tears unmanly, for tears are rain, and men only weep salt tears because they are made of earth, and the tears mix with the most soluble earth—salt—as soon as they come out. Tess is not so made.

 **Jo of the Hearth** – Jo is a god of indeterminate gender, the god of the hearthstone and of fire, both wild and tame. Fire is called Jo, in the North, sometimes. This is why. A house isn’t a home without a fire—and Jo is the oldest of gods, though the spryest as well. It is Jo that made men, out of earth and fire (i.e. pottery), throwing all animals upon his wheel, but being especially fond of men (that is why men do not fear fire, when other animals do. and that is why animals are warm, and plants are not). He lives inside the sun, which is his Keep.

 **Murya Silvergale** – The goddess of the wind, and of wailing, death, and decay. She is not an evil goddess; but it is she who makes the wail of the wind, and the scream of the gale. It is she who dances in the shadows upon the wall, and it is she who lets out all the ghosts and beasties, on Longnight, she who scratches upon the shutters, and she who brews the storms. She finds fear frightfully fun, and delights in offerings of play and masquerade. It is she who also punishes those who disrespect graves, memorials, or corpses.

 **Elsbet Brightwing** – A small goddess, sister to Tess, who has the wings of… well, of anything she likes, be it colourful butterfly or colourful bird, or dragon. But always in every colour there is. It is she who colours the world, and limns the night when she retreats to her home for the night—she is the one who lights the moon.

 **Wolf** – Wolf is the Lord of All Wood, and made the trees, and keeps the river, and herds the deer. Wolf is the one all Weirwoods speak to, and Wolf is a very old goddess, indeed, just like her sister, Bear. But Wolf is the only god-of-animals that Men also worship. She showed them her regard and approval by giving them Hound, a Tame Wolf, who can herd *their* deer (sheep) without using death. Tame Wolf is smarter than that, and there are many tales of just how clever and tricksy Tame Wolf is—but also as many where her high opinion of her cleverness gets her into trouble.

 **Bear** – Bear is never spoken of by name, even ‘Bear’ is a euphemism in an old forgotten tongue. She is terrifying and to be respected, and feared, for it is Bear that invented Winter, that her great hunger might be calmed enough to sleep for a time.

 **Boar** – Boar is also to be feared, but is not so venerated as wise as Bear; for, when Boar’s hunger could not be sated, he invented War.

 **Cat Lin** – Cat Lin is a sly, and a quiet creature, a Goddess Of All That Can Be Seen, But Not With Mere Eyes. She is wife to Jo, and that is why all cats like to sit near the fire. All House Cats are grandchildren of Cat, and the King of The Cats is her son, and he has some little adventures himself, of his cleverness and tricksyness. In fact, some tales of Tame Wolf are also sometimes told with King Of The Cats as the protagonist instead.

* * *

# Monsters

 **The Goblin King** – Living down, down, far underground, and speaking only in rhyme and riddle and song, the Goblin King eats little children, and his goblins all scurry and scurry to find them, but can be easily fooled. The Goblin King is as beautiful as his goblins are ugly, but it is not real. He is just as ugly as them, but his magic makes it seem otherwise.

 **The Autumnfolk** – Pointed ear and sparkling eye can tell you when you see the Autumnfolk; they blow into town like leaves in autumn, and blow away as easily—as does their coin. This is why northmen bite coins. Do not drink of their wine, it is too strong for men.

 **Snarks** – Horrible spiky things that live in the water and stab bare-footed bathers foolish enough to walk into their path. This is an example of a real thing that became legend—sea urchins.

 **Shellycoats** – Living on the cold coasts, shellycoats are sorrowful creatures always looking in the mud for impossible things, and weeping. They speak in little whispers, but can do you a good turn if you are kind to them. Usually found in longer tales as someone the hero does a good deed for and receives a magical impossible gift from.

 **Hollowheart Kos** – A terribly powerful male witch, he cannot be killed by stabbing him in the heart, for he keeps his heart elsewhere. A common ultimate antagonist in hero-tales.

 **Strahd** – The only named Whitewalker in any legend, Strahd is said to be unlike the shambling and rotting wights; he is a corpse, but he as a man transformed himself, while still living, into a Whitewalker, for terrible reasons of his own, and due to dark sorcery he remains as perfect and beautiful as he was in life—except for his deathly pallor, and the terrible, unnatural fire of his eyes. It is said he thrists for living blood to sate an impossible chill.

 **Ylym Whisperscale** – a huge and wingless, legless dragon, called a Wyrm in the North, Ylym is sought by brave heroes for advice, or for information that was lost. Ylym’s loyalty is to nobody but himself, and it is often the hero must pose him a riddle he has not heard before, in order to be allowed to leave alive. Ylym’s cave is clean, not littered in bones—it is too clean. Alarmingly clean. Snakes are referred to as Ylym’s grandchildren.

**Author's Note:**

> There are a lot of tiny easter eggs and if you catch them all... well, good for you! I hope it gave you a giggle. For those who didn't, here they are, in order of appearance:
> 
> John Barleycorn is a real mythological entity in England, known through folk songs by Fairport Convention, and also Alexander J. Adams, one of my fav transmen in the media. 
> 
> Tess, Jo, and Murya (mariah) are from the song 'They Call The Wind Mariah' from the musical Paint Your Wagon.
> 
> Wolf is based on my wonderful beautiful girlfriend. Tame Wolf/Hound is based on both Rowsby Woof (from Watership Down), and also stories I grew up on about Trickster Gods such as Coyote, Anansi, Loki, and Hermes. Every pantheon needs a Trickster God.
> 
> Bear, or rather, her name being a euphemism and the attitude toward her, are historical fact in our own world. 
> 
> The King of the Cats is also an English folk character.
> 
> The Goblin King is based on, of course, Jareth of Labyrinth--but also the Goblin King from Tolkien's The Hobbit.
> 
> The Autumnfolk are in stories of the fae from the British Isles.
> 
> Snarks were actually invented not by GRRM but Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodgson.
> 
> Shellycoats are a fae I heard stories about when I was living in North Carolina. 
> 
> Hollowheart Kos is based on the Russian folk villain Koschei.
> 
> Strahd is from Ravenloft, a Dungeons and Dragons horror setting.
> 
> Ylym (Elim) is a send-up to Elim Garak from Deep Space 9.
> 
> * * *
> 
> Comments? Questions? Bonus Features? Come over to [my discord](https://discord.gg/Mvygfnn)!


End file.
